911 Board Receives Committee Assignments, Starts Work on Budget

Effingham County 911 Board members Tuesday received committee assignments for the coming year.

The assignments were okayed with the understanding that the Board is down one member. The Board needs a member from the fire service community. That member has typically been the Effingham fire chief, but that position has been vacant since Bob Tutko's retirement earlier this year.

Here are the committee assignments:

Equipment/PSAP--Jake Buhnerkempe, John Maguire, Jason McFarland

Human Resources--Dave Campbell, Jason McFarland, Dave Mahon

Addressing--New Member, Dave Mahon, David Budde

Finance--Jake Buhnerkempe, Dave Campbell, Paul Kuhns

Public Education--John Maguire, New Member, Larry Thies

Emergency Services--David Budde, Larry Thies, Paul Kuhns

The Board also discussed the need to complete work on a budget for the coming year. Members agreed on the need to get the budget finalized and ready for consideration at the October meeting. Finance Committee members Jake Buhnerkempe, Dave Campbell and Paul Kuhns plan to meet next week to get started on the budget proposal.

There was discussion about a post-traumatic stress disorder class for 911 dispatchers. The PTSD class was proposed by Effingham Police Chief Jason McFarland. City Telecommunications Supervisor Billie Bales said the consensus was to hold off on holding the class until the COVID pandemic abates so more telecommunicators could participate.